The city issued a permit Sept. 12 for ELEV8 Demolition to take down a 40-year-old building that served as a restaurant and nightclub on Jacksonville Aviation Authority property near Craig Airport.
Starting as Henderson’s but spending its last 24 years the Jacksonville Gold Club Gentlemen’s Club & Steak House, the building at 320 General Doolittle will be demolished at a cost of $55,000.
The 12,037-square-foot building is north of Atlantic Boulevard in East Arlington. The 9.3-acre site is behind car dealerships.
The property is gated and is not accessible by the public.
It is on the southeast side of Jacksonville Executive at Craig Airport, the authority’s airport for corporate aviation and flight training.
Greg Willis, the authority’s marketing and public relations manager, said previously it is about 715 feet from the edge of a runway.
“The lease terminated. The building has outlived its useful life,” Willis said.
Willis said the authority intends to use the property for nonaeronautical land uses compatible with city zoning.
JAX Airport Director of External Affairs Michael Stewart said Aug. 30 the demolition will open up the property, which is part of more than 100 acres the authority has nearby for development.
“Hopefully we will get some developer that will bring something to us,” he said.
“It is well-controlled what we can develop on non-aeronautical” property, he said.
That would be development that does not impede the airport activity.
The Gold Club closed in April 2021, according to the club’s Facebook page.
Willis said its lease expired in April 2021.
JAA did not set out to lease property to a nightclub. It inherited the lease through a bankruptcy filing.
The World War II-themed Henderson’s launched in April 1982. It closed in 1986 and then operated under other names. The business ownership filed bankruptcy in California and the federal bankruptcy judge awarded the lease to White’s Place, operator of the Gold Club, in 1995.
The Gold Club posted on Facebook on April 20, 2021, that after 24 years, it was closing the location.
Stewart said the JAA had to honor the Gold Club lease that was assigned by the court.